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Hello, from a Hoseason.....!


CSK

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Dear All,

Just found this forum and registered, in my search for a holiday on a Hoseason boat in the Broads.

I'm 50 years old, and in the last few years found out that I was born a Hoseason!

William Ballantyne Hoseason was my Grand father, James Hoseason(OBE) was my Uncle, my mother was his sister, Joan Margaret Helen Hoseason.

I was adopted when young, and have only in the last few years found all this out, and have had quite an adventure finding my family, all the history, and ancestry...... It was like opening Pandora's box.

Feels like an episode of "Who do you think you are"... Even been to Shetland where the family came from, it's a long tale............!

Suffice to say, I am the family dark secret, and I am not exactly close to their hearts.....!

I was trying to book a boat on the Broads, with Hoseasons, and have found that a lot has changed. I know Uncle Jimmy sold the company some 13-14 years ago and things were bound to change, but would love some one to be able to bring me up to date with the changes, and help me find a Hoseason boat, ideally, to book for September.

Colin Shipton-Knight, nay, Martin John Hoseason...

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Hello, welcome to the forum cheers

I think there may be others that know the Hoseasons story in better or more accurate detail than me, and I guess you already have found much on the net regarding James Hoseason, so suffice to say he was a true gent and with a great mind. He did much to help make Broadland, and boating holidays become as popular as they were/are today. They always seemed much more than a booking agent really.

I always used to want to run a company like Hoseasons when I was at school, but after getting some relevant qualifications in the holiday industry to start me on my path I have worked in a totally unrelated industry ever since! :lol:

Hoseasons was sold to a management buy out around 1999 if I remember rightly, and was then sold quite recently, in early 2010 to Wyndham, who already owned main competitors Blakes. At the time I was quite gutted as Blakes didn't seem to do any part of the job as well to my mind, but luckilly it seems Blakes has now come up to Hoseasons level in terms of website and marketing etc, and Blakes almost merged into Hoseasons rather than the other way round which is good.

Gone are the days though where you would ring up and get accurate/informed boat information from people who really understood and knew what they were doing and talking about. Good marketing and the internet seems to have taken over, and they still do many things very well or better than ever perhaps, but in recent years people on the phones don't seem to know much about boating holidays or boat differences first hand .... still, this kind of thing is probably true of most areas and seems to be the way of the world now. I guess partly as the number of calls taken now (with the internet etc) compared to relatively recently, such as in 1995 say will be a tiny fraction.

I think the offices are still at Sunway House in Lowestoft, which has been the location of the head office for many years.

Good luck on finding out more, and hope you enjoy your holiday! :Stinky

Dan

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